Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard made a rare onstage solo appearance last night (July 25) at Saint Vitus in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, N.Y., capping an evening celebrating his relaunched record label, Loosegroove.
Gossard joined Loosegroove signee Jonny Polonsky‘s trio to sing the obscure solo track “Both Live,” from his 2013 album Moonlander. Clearly enjoying the impromptu moment in front of a couple hundred friends and music industry supporters, Gossard even showed off some dance moves in tandem with the song’s lounge-y swing. It was a lighthearted rejoinder to his arena-rocking day job in Pearl Jam, which begins a short North American tour Aug. 31 in St. Paul, Mn.
Shortly afterwards, Gossard and Jamie Hall of fellow Loosegroove act Tigercub rejoined Polonsky and company as extra guitarists for a night-capping cover of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” Hall had played several songs solo from the Tigercub discography prior to Polonsky’s set.
The event coincided with tomorrow’s release of In the Moment That You’re Born, the final album from Gossard’s band Brad with Loosegroove co-founder Regan Hagar. Gossard began the evening introducing and playing tracks from a host of Loosegroove artists, including Brittany Davis, James and the Cold Gun, and Painted Shield (of which he’s also a member), and seemed to set the stage for future Loosegroove gatherings of this type in other cities.
And although he’d been advertised as the evening’s “guest bartender,” Gossard left the cocktail pouring to the professionals after admitting to them earlier in the day that he didn’t know how to mix drinks. Hagar was also on hand at Saint Vitus, and many of the Loosegroove album covers he’s helped design over the years were on display along with special label merchandise and memorabilia.
Gossard and Hagar launched Loosegroove in 1994 and ran it until 2000, with the then-unknown Queens of the Stone Age’s 1996 self-titled debut album its most notable release. The pair revived Loosegroove in 2020 and signed a distribution deal with the Orchard, whose VP of promotion/artist development Billie Jean Sarullo is also a partner.
